The expansion of the Internet and the development of a range of new active and passive measurement tools, particularly on mobile devices, present exciting opportunities for researchers. Compared to conventional surveys, using these new measurement opportunities (e.g., visual data or metered data) could reduce respondent burden, improve data quality, and extend measurement into new domains, allowing to answer questions that could not be answered so far and to improve the decisions of key actors (e.g. government). However, while many people speak about these ideas, very little research has implemented such possibilities, and even less has assessed the data quality associated with such approaches. Thus, there is a huge need for further research in this area. In this presentation, Melanie Revilla will discuss potential advantages (e.g. no problem of human memory) and disadvantages (e.g., more difficult to be sure that the consent is informed and that participants are aware of all the shared information) of these data. Moreover, she will present some examples of the research that she is doing to learn more about these new data types and to help researchers using them in the best way possible.

Melanie Revilla is a survey methodologist researcher at IBEI. She is the PI of the WEB DATA OPP project, funded by an ERC starting grant. This project investigates new measurement opportunities linked mainly to the growing presence of smartphones, including the use of visual data or metered data, to complement or replace conventional survey data in order to get better or new insights. She is also Editor-in-chief of the journal methods, data, analyses (MDA). Read more

During the course 2022-23, IBEI has organised a series of research seminars, which normally take place once a week. Check the 2022-23 programme